Mangled by the Green Machine

HIBERNIAN 2 Riordan 15, Benjelloun 78
HEARTS 1 Bednar 45

NOT everything in the Edinburgh football world is changing. Hearts may now be operating on a different plane to their capital rivals when it comes to Premierleague ambition, wages and newsprint consumption. Easter Road, however, remains a sanctuary for Hibernian, a place where they can dare to feel superior to the souped-up Tynecastle side. Yesterday's 2-1 win completed a derby double for the Leith club on their home patch this season and ensured that they remain unbeaten there in city confrontations since November 2002.

The streakiness of the victory will matter not a jot to those of a Hibs disposition, or the fact that their cause was boosted by Hearts' continued ostracising of Andy Webster. All that will is that Tony Mowbray worked the charm in introducing Abdessalam Benjelloun and Paul Dalglish for ineffectual pair Ivan Sproule and Steven Fletcher on the hour mark.

The recently signed Moroccan was supposed to be the saviour for a depleted Hibs in the all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup semi-final that turned out all Hearts. Yesterday, he belatedly gave his new audience something to savour, pouncing after Dalglish helped a ball on from the left edge of the box and planted a pinpoint low drive beyond Craig Gordon. There then followed the bizarre sight of the youngster wheeling and tearing off on a run in the direction of the Hearts end. He wasn't stopped by team-mates in time to escape a booking from referee Charlie Richmond. "That's the fastest I've seen him run since he came here," Derek Riordan quipped afterwards.

The 78th-minute decider came at a time when Hibs seemed to be on their uppers. Hearts, who had fallen behind to a Riordan strike that depended on a lenient interpretation of the offside law, were then hunting down a winner with intent. Entirely dominant, they were full of the grit absent in a first half that ended with them bagging a Roman Bednar equaliser only because of Zbigniew Malkowski's capacity for calamity. While the Hibs goalkeeper had reason to curse himself, opposite number Gordon was afterwards left damning officialdom for Riordan's deadlock breaker, the first derby goal netted by the player to have contributed to a Hibs win.

The Hearts goalkeeper was left perplexed that the assistant did not flag Fletcher offside, despite the striker having run across his eyeline in an offside position to avoid making contact with Riordan's edge-of-the-box hit. "If he [Fletcher] had touched it he would have been offside," the Scotland No.1 said. "If I'd known he wasn't going to touch it, I'd have made an effort to save the first ball. In these decisions, goalkeepers aren't looked on favourably and it doesn't seem to matter if they can't see the ball or someone is standing in front of them. I saw it as clear cut." So did Riordan, just in a different way. "Fletch would never get it anyway, I struck it too well," he said.

The win, meanwhile, was a blow struck for both Hibs and Rangers, who can cut Hearts lead in the chase for Champions League-qualifier earning second place to two points by winning at Celtic Park today. Hibs also need Hearts to finish third for the fourth place they are pursuing to merit entry to the UEFA Cup.

As with the semi-final, Hibs were once again missing mainstays from their starting line-up with Kevin Thomson and Chris Killen both injured and Scott Brown only making the bench on his return from a leg fracture. But with a couple of position tweaks there was a more balanced look to the home selection than in the cup-tie.

Which was a damn sight more than could be said for a Hearts starting XI that had owner Vladimir Romanov's fingerprints all over it. Interim coach Valdas Ivanauskas might be in with a shout of taking the post on a permanent basis, his recently expressed desire. For he seems to have no beef with Romanov operating as the de facto coach. With Stephen Pressley, Jose Concalves and Takis Fyssas all injured, it is inconceivable that Ivanauskas would not have wanted Webster at centre back. But the Scotland internationalist's refusal to sign a contract extension has made him persona non grata in the owner's eyes.

The upshot of Webster's omission was little-seen-but-Romanov-recruited Ibrahim Tall being handed a starting debut as partner for Christophe Berra in the heart of the visitors' backline. It was a pairing that appeared anything but watertight when Riordan opened the scoring in the 15th minute. The two central defenders and Robbie Neilson would have needed walkie-talkies to communicate when Sproule found Riordan with a cross from the right. And such was their tardiness in closing down the Hibs striker he still had all the time he needed to spear an angled drive into the net.

Hibs had only themselves to blame for failing to preserve their slender lead going into the interval. There is something about Hearts that seems to bring out the worst in Malkowski, culpable in at least two of the Tynecastle men's goals in the semi-final. Yesterday he was simply the man who compounded errors, with Gary Caldwell and Chris Hogg getting into a mix-up attempting to halt Bednar as he drove into the Hibs box six minutes from the break. They seemed to have achieved their aim when Hogg was able to head the ball towards his goalkeeper. But after the Pole seemed to have it in his grasp, it somehow wriggled free, allowing the Hearts striker to touch it in.

Having seemed disjointed and distracted for much of a typically robust confrontation - in which both sides were not averse to mixing it, Mr Romanov - the goal was a gift to Hearts. Fate proved more of a taker than giver for the Tynecastle men, however. By making all the running in a second period during which Tall missed a pinch of a header, once more they demonstrated admirable resilience. The sucker punch from Benjelloun was hardly the reward that show warranted.

Taken from the Scotsman